Study of the U.S. Institute for Scholars on Contemporary American Literature

Eighteen visiting scholars and educators from eighteen different countries are invited to come to Seattle University for four weeks of academic residency and two weeks of study tour.

In academic seminars, participants will encounter a diverse set of contemporary U.S. authors and artists, different kinds of cultural expression, and a variety of American colleagues from Seattle University and institutions around the country who represent a range of disciplinary approaches to literature and culture.

The goals of the Institute include more complex conceptions of U.S. history, society, and institutions; new materials and paths for research and teaching in participants’ home countries; and connections that foster peaceful, mutual understanding and the possibility for further intellectual and institutional exchange.

The 2019 SUSI Program

Seattle University will soon welcome colleagues from around the world to the Pacific Northwest for the 2019 Study of the US Institute on Contemporary American Literature.  This year's participants come from Belarus, Brazil, Cameroon, Finland, France, India, Lebanon, Mexico, Mongolia, Nepal, People’s Republic of China, Portugal, Tajikistan, Togo, Tunisia, Turkey, and Uzbekistan.

The academic program will feature a number of overlapping themes:

  • Major Currents and New Directions in American Literature
  • American Regionalism in Literature and Culture
  • Indigenous Perspectives in/as American Literature
  • Literature and Identity:  Race, Gender, Sexuality, and Religion
  • The Environmental Imagination and America in Deep Time
  • Contemporary Art and Creative Writing in the Pacific Northwest and the U.S.
  • Technology, New Media, and Post-1945 Fiction and Poetry
  • Infrastructure, Diverse Publics, and Frameworks for the Contemporary.

On the study tour, SUSI participants will visit San Francisco/Berkeley, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C.  In these major centers of literary and artistic production, we will visit sites of historical and cultural interest that are important for understanding the work of writers, artists, and thinkers from the mid-twentieth century to the present.

The Study of the U.S. Institute for Scholars on Contemporary American Literature is sponsored by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs at the U.S. Department of State with funding provided by the U.S. government and supported in its implementation by Seattle University. 

SU Seal and DOS Seal and US Flag

The SUSI Team